Awakening
by Pekinaso
Summary: A mini fanfic about what happens after Asura faces off against the meteor at the end of the interlude of Episode 22. Rated T for violence and mild language.


He sat at the bar, taking several shots of whisky. He had taken… how many shots? He couldn't remember anymore, and he wasn't really thinking about it either. He was getting pretty impaired, yet he kept right on drinking. He couldn't shake the memory from his mind.

He remembered the rage he felt when he heard the crying of his daughter, the threat of the meteor just before him. He felt his eyes burn as he clenched his fists. This giant piece of rock had just made his daughter _cry_. He thrust out his right fist, and punched the space rock. It shattered into pieces, raising a cloud of dust. He couldn't remember anything after that. He just knew that he woke up hours later in a hospital.

"Father!" his daughter cried in relief as she hugged his arm and started crying softly. He winced. He hated hearing her cry, and it made him feel awful knowing that _he_ was the reason she was crying now.

"Asura…" his wife, Durga, said softly to him as she kissed his cheek and rubbed his gravity-defying white hair. He stared blankly at her.

"What happened?" he asked rather weakly. He just now realized that his whole body was aching, and he wasn't sure why.

"I—we thought you were dead," a deep, serious voice said behind Durga. The man stood up from his seat and stepped out from behind Asura's wife, revealing himself. Asura's eyebrows furrowed.

"Yasha… What do you mean?" he asked him. His gold eyes showed concern.

"That meteor… you punched it, and it shattered like it was weak glass. Left a big crater, even," he explained. "You have no idea how surprised I was to find you still breathing." Asura sat up in the hospital bed and held his head with one hand.

"Punched the meteor…?" That didn't make any sense to him. He should've been dead. Yet, here he was, alive and well, though in a bit of pain. He could still remember the fiery rage that burned within him when he destroyed the space rock. Where did it come from? What did it mean?

He reached for the glass to take another shot, but found it empty. He looked at the bartender with a questioning look. He shrugged.

"You keep taking shots and you're gonna walk outta here like a drunk elephant," he said. "You might as well leave now." Asura, though disappointed, understood the man and reached into his pocket. He took out a wad of cash and placed it on the table as he slowly began to stand up. He was feeling a little impaired, and his vision was a little blurry. He awkwardly stumbled away and headed towards the door. However, a group of three simple men elbowed each other and looked at the white-haired man, and began to snicker amongst themselves.

"Hey, White-Hair!" they shouted to him. Asura immediately knew that they were referring to him; he was the only person in the bar with hair as white as snow. He turned to them with an annoyed look in his red eyes and said nothing. One of the men grinned. "Guess something really bad happened if you've been here for this long. Hell, how _long_ have you been here?"

"Long enough for him to grow white hair!" some other man in the group exclaimed. The group roared in laughter. Asura scowled. He wasn't in the mood for this. He really didn't like it when people assumed that he was a lot older than he looked just because he had solid white hair. Hell, he was only 28 years old, and his face looked it. He started to walk away again. Suddenly, the biggest man of the three stood up, his laughter having stopped.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked darkly. Asura stopped. He glanced behind him, his eyes burning with anger now. The man balled his hands into fists and smirked cruelly. "You're a pretty little guy. I could throw you around if I wanted to." At this, Asura turned around fully, his own hands balled into fists. He growled.

"Try me," he told the man in a voice that was trembling with rage. The man flew at him as his two other buddies stood up and prepared to join the fight.

Yasha drummed his fingers on the steering wheel of his Corvette Stingray C-7 convertible, the roof closed. He sighed, as he was waiting to pick up his brother-in-law. He decided to take a quick glance at the bar, and saw what appeared to be Asura and another unknown man about to square up. He growled under his breath.

"Oh no," he sighed as he rapidly opened the door of his car to get out. He closed the door as soon as he was out, locked the car, and quickly walked over to the door of the bar. He flung it open, a look of annoyance on his face. Asura's opponent noticed the newcomer and stopped in his tracks. His expression turned into confusion when he noticed that he was staring at him.

"Whatcha want?!" he shouted a little angrily. Asura was about to punch him when he saw the man coming at him, but stopped when his opponent stopped. He looked back at the door, where the man was looking. Through his blurry vision, he was able to make out the figure of his brother-in-law standing there.

"Yasha…?" he asked with slightly slurred speech. Yasha scowled as he stepped into the bar, letting the door close again.

"I said, _whatcha want?!_" the man yelled again. Yasha quickly realized that both he and Asura were drunk, so he decided to make this quick. He went over to Asura and grabbed his shoulder, ignoring the man completely.

"Asura, let's go," he said a bit sternly. Asura scowled, a little hesitant to leave. However, he was in no mood to argue. He turned away from the man and started to walk away, Yasha being his escort.

"Hey! You can't leave! Not until we're done here!" the man shouted. He started to run at the two of them. Yasha sighed. He had no choice now. He pushed Asura a little to move him away as he turned around with lightning speed. He quickly dove underneath the man's sloppy punch and side-stepped him. The man, off-balance, awkwardly stumbled forward, and fell down just behind Asura. Asura managed to regain his composure after being pushed to safety by his brother-in-law, and managed to quickly turn around to face his original opponent, who was trying to get up.

"Stay there, Asura!" Yasha yelled as he began to rush at the man's two friends, who were coming at him now. One of the men tried to punch Yasha in the face, but he was too fast. He side-stepped him as well, and tripped him, causing the man to fall face-first. However, the second man quickly took his chance and successfully did what his friend had just failed to do. Worse still, he broke Yasha's glasses. Yasha stumbled back and almost fell as his head sagged and his broken glasses fell off his face. He brought a hand up to his face as he felt nothing but a stunning pain. _Ow_.

"Yasha!" Asura suddenly yelled, his eyes flashing white for just a split second. He growled loudly as he began to charge the third man that had just harmed his own friend. Yasha's eyes flicked open, the annoyance in his expression having changed into anger. _If only they would just listen to reason_, he thought to himself as he straightened up and removed his hand from his face. He saw the first man rise to his feet and start running after Asura. He decided to go for him first, and let Asura deal with the third man. Quick as lightning, he ran up to the original trouble-maker before he even knew what was happening. He only had time to glance at Yasha before he threw a quick punch at his face, one that knocked him unconscious.

Meanwhile, Asura yelled loudly as he slammed his fist into the third man's face, giving him a near-instant black eye, but leaving him conscious. The man who had punched Yasha stumbled backwards and fell to the ground as he reeled from the strong blow. The second man rose to his feet and readied himself to throw a punch at the white-haired man. However, Yasha was quicker, and elbowed him in the side of the head hard enough to knock him out. The second man collapsed, down for good. Asura looked at him.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his words slightly slurred. Yasha looked back at him and nodded.

"My glasses are broken, but I'm fine," he replied in a serious tone. Suddenly, the third man, now with a black eye, stood up and looked at the both of them.

"H—hey! You knocked out my buddies!" he shouted to them as he awkwardly covered his bruised eye. Asura scowled.

"Then maybe your 'buddies' shouldn't have been asking for a fight!" he shouted back as he threatened to punch him again. Yasha quickly grabbed his shoulder to keep him back.

"Asura, please," he told him in a gentler voice. "You're drunk." The third man suddenly laughed.

"What are you?" he said to Yasha in a mocking tone. "Are you his care-taker or something?" Yasha merely ignored him as he and his younger brother-in-law started to back away in an attempt to leave. The man slowly started to uncover his eye. "By the way, that's a nice bun you've got there. _Very _nice hairstyle. Would be a shame if anything were to happen to it." He started to charge at them both. Yasha sighed.

"Why don't you just listen to reason?!" he yelled in anger as he slapped the man's cheek with his free hand, stunning him. Yasha released Asura's shoulder and quickly round-house kicked the temporarily paralyzed man's side, sending him crashing into the table next to him, his head hitting the wood so hard it knocked him out. Yasha scowled as he walked over to his glasses and picked them up. He put them in his pocket as he walked back over to Asura and picked him up by the waist.

"Yasha?! What are you doing?!" he asked angrily, surprised by Yasha's action. The older brother-in-law placed the youth over his shoulder and started to carry him out of the bar like so.

"I'm taking you back home," he replied, now calm. "You have no idea how much Durga and Mithra are worried about you." Upon hearing that, Asura calmed down and felt guilty about himself. He had left his own wife and daughter hanging. Yasha opened the door of the bar and took a glance back into the place. The bartender was still staring at him in shock. Yasha grimaced and shrugged.

"Sorry about the inconvenience," he said before walking out. He unlocked his Corvette and opened the passenger door. He gently placed Asura on the seat and closed the door. He walked over to the other side and entered his car from the driver's side. He started the car and placed his hands on the steering wheel right after putting both his and Asura's seat belts on.

"Yasha," Asura said in a weak voice. Yasha looked over at him, his gold eyes meeting his brother-in-law's tired red ones.

"Yes, Asura?" The youth turned to look at the elder.

"Thanks for helping me out back there." With that, Asura closed his eyes and immediately slipped into unconsciousness, drunk from all the alcohol he had consumed. Yasha clicked his tongue and shook his head slowly. _What a fool_, he thought to himself as the friends drove home together.


End file.
